ANCIENTDIMENSIONS ARTICLE:.

Having found myself involved in the French mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau and being led by a series of synchronicities afforded me by the strange machinations of the Collective Unconscious to a conclusion at Lincoln Cathedral ,England, I thought it worthwhile to present before those as equally fascinated as myself by this ‘treasure’ hunting tool, an earlier adventure I embarked upon whilst living in Northern England, as it is a wonderous example of how the puzzle of synchronicity can invite itself into any drama.

I apologise at the onset that many precise details that I usually prefer to present , my imperfect memory has since mislayed, as we must return to 1989, and documents, photos and clippings that I once had in possession have long since left my safe keeping, but I will relive and share the story as best I can!

I had always had an interest in Durham Cathedral, it’s strange chevron shaped lozenge pillars for which no agreed upon explanation can be confirmed. Durham Cathedral is allegedly the final resting place of St Cuthbert...one of the most important medieval saints.....but what interested me the most about him is when I heard about ‘The Cuthbert Code’ told me by a retired Benedictine called Walter. Walter brought me up to speed about how after having originally been buried at Lindisfarne, in 1104 Cuthbert , after much moving about by his protective adherents, was found a resting place within Durham Cathedral, only to be disturbed by Henry VIII’s Reformation marauding commissioners in 1530 looting for treasure. Whilst orthodoxy tells us that he was reburied at this shrine in 1542, the Cuthbert Code assures us that his loyal monks to safeguard against any other attempts of sacrilege, reburied him in a secret location, a substitute skeleton placed in the tomb.

According to a tradition that will simply never go away, it is maintained that the secret of Cuthbert’s reburial location is closely guarded by the English Benedictine Congregation - and the bit that will appeal to fans of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ - with no more than three monks knowing the true location at any one time. I recalled Cuthbert being mentioned in a local legend involving a treasure, belonging to the small coastal town of South Shields, located at the mouth of the River Tyne, 19 miles away from Durham Cathedral, it being the legend of ‘The Fairies Kettle’, having seen a small article in the local newspaper of the town. It seemed a good place to start, and so I approached the vicar of the ancient St Hilda’s church in the town, one of the oldest churches in the UK, who was custodian of the only copy of a document chronicling the tale in the church safe. With some persuasion, he allowed me a copy of his 1897 original, which I assume may still be in this archive today. To get straight to the point, the fairy guardians of Trow Rocks had a golden cup stolen from their keeping, it being whisked away to stay a short while at Westoe in South Shields and then onto Durham Cathedral to be buried alongside Cuthbert. It soon became apparent to me that this ancient tale was the origin of the Trow Rock placename and that it should actually be ‘Trove’ Rocks on account of the magical treasure. Furthermore, I became suspicious that it was in fact a deliberate allegory relating to a memory of a ‘treasure’ that was relating to St Cuthbert, and that the item had not gone to Westoe and then onto his tomb at Durham but in actual fact was telling us that it had stayed there and was joined by Cuthbert himself. During medieval times, Westoe Village was owned by the monks of Durham, as was the surrounding area, thus making it truly easy to sneak the Saint onto their own turf. But where?

In Westoe Village during 1989 stood a long, derelict Nunnery once belonging to (something like, forgive my ailing memory) The Order of the Little Sisters of Mercy, and knowing how objects of a religious significance have a habit (pun intended!) of finding their way to religious buildings, I wondered if the innocent placing of the Nunnery may have found its way via that mysterious agent of the Collective Unconscious with a buried Cuthbert awaiting unbeknown to all. Another synchronicity in this case would be the placing of the contrived Fairies Kettle document at St Hilda’s which was built in 1100 where a nunnery once stood. At the time of my interest, the nunnery had just started to be disturbed and turned into a part of a new block of flats, and so I was allowed access inside having explained my interest to the unconcerned builders. On a stone floor, under inches of dust, was the centerpiece – a mosaic five-point star! I felt if only I could explore this tumble down nunnery a little further, particularly underground, I might just come across something interesting. In the meanwhile, I had approached the then controversial Bishop of Durham David Jenkins through the Dean and Chapter, asking him if he thought I could have a case for Cuthbert being at Westoe. To be honest, I thought he’d play the whole thing down or show little interest, but instead he was kind enough to refer me to a particular monk at Ampleforth Abbey, York, whom he said he knew had studied the Cuthbert Code for most of his life! Eagerly I wrote to this brother – whose name I fear I have now also forgotten – and he replied in a letter saying that he was too old now to pursue his interest – he was in his nineties – but urged me that I should continue my work! By this time I had managed a full page feature in the South Shields local newspaper ‘The Gazette’ headlined ‘Is Cuthbert buried at Shields?’ and it had caused immense interest, so much so that I felt I would have to write a follow-up, and with this understanding the Editor promised he would run it. I had a lot of evidence collated from numerous sources and from within the village, one being an old plaque high up a wall curiously stating ’Follow the paths of the Lord and you will find him.’ Was this hinting at follow subterranean paths, or tunnels, under the nunnery and you would find Cuthbert? Things suddenly got better when the initial stages of demolishing the nunnery exposed a level of structure under natural floor level with a convenient point of entry. The initial article had interested the new owner of the land who was about to build a number of plush flats there, and so when I asked him if it was ok for us to nosey about below the site, as best we could, he was quite happy to let us, but adding that we only had a few days as after that everything would be filled in and levelled over once and for all. Accompanied by a team of two burly ex-Westoe Colliery miners and a stonemason friend of one of them, we all entered the darkened mazy passageway that led to another sealed off passage. I may have asked short term permission from the owner to be in there but what I hadn’t told him was that my crew were armed with lump hammers borrowed from the Colliery and so I watched as they actually smashed a hole in the passage wall in no time at all!

I also took an imprint of what was a Masons mark on one brick of this wall, using plastercine. We were now under a stairwell and what turned out to be a small hollow cavity. Our stonemason friend did what he does and informed us that there should be something below...the perfect place to hide something of value!

Frustratingly, our short term permission was now up, with no time for us to investigate further, our being on the scent of the Saint was over. Armed with the stonemason’s independent report, photographs taken at every step of the way and even the Masonic mark on the brick, I wrote a very intriguing and honest sequel for the newspaper Editor, whose public could hardly wait. But they would, and still do today, for the Editor at the time was a Catholic, and found the evidence a rather bit overwhelming suggesting that a Catholic Saint was not, after all, resident at Durham Cathedral, and so he refused to run the second article. In the meanwhile, I had taken the story to the Town Council who were interested in a potential tourist attraction, but asked me if I would move my location some 100yards away so that they could fence the area off and not aggravate private home owners! They even set me up for an interview in ‘The Times’ newspaper which was conducted but, I don’t know why, never printed.

My Cuthbert Code involvement next moves ahead to 1997, when new evidence again cast doubt on the final resting place of the Catholic Saint Thomas Beckett, being at Canterbury Cathedral. This resonated so strongly with my own adventure that I thought I should strike whilst the iron was hot, and so arranged to meet up with the latest Editor of the South Shields Gazette, and try again to see if what was originally my second and follow up article could at last be presented to the town. The original Editor who had thwarted me had since left, and so with the prospect of starting afresh and with the Canterbury Beckett controversy current, I could see no reason why this time I should fail. Gathering up all my evidence of eight years earlier, I compiled a formidable dossier and took it to the meeting. He was happy to see me and sat studying the work only to eventually break his silence to ask ‘Is this a wind up?’ Although offended, I was used to these sort of inferences, it’s the usual initial response before people settle down to have to consider the seriousness of the evidence before them. I assured him not, and we sat talking for some time, but I couldn’t help detecting his feeling uncomfortable. He concluded saying he’d think about a feature – which again surprised me as readers love this stuff- and he’d be in contact in a few days. The few days elapsed and he rang to say that he wasn’t after all, going to run the article. When I pressed him for why, he went one step further – he couldn’t run it. Why, I asked? ‘Because I live in the flat above your location’, he replied. And that was that. South Shields has a population of about 90,000, but circumstances presented me a synchronicity that, for once, left me cold rather than amazed.

Copyright©2008 Dan Green

FS Note: Followers of Dan Green's quest into the Lincoln Cathedral Grail Code discovery and the Mystery of Rennes-les-Chateau can view all his YouTube video material, including visits to Royston Cave, Temple Bruer etc., on one page at: http://uk.youtube.com/greenren07

By the same author::
Royston Cave - Codex of the Knights Templar
Lincoln Cathedral, The Grail and the Stone Sculptor
The Lincoln Cathedral And Rennes-Le-Chateau Synergic
The Templars Head And Templecombe Panel Painting

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